Login | November 03, 2025
Chronic muscle cramping
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: November 3, 2025
I just returned from a long bike ride sporting some crazy sore legs, and the funny thing is that they aren’t sore as a result of the distance I covered - about two hundred miles - but more from the cramping I endured on the first day of cycling.
Now I’ve always had cramping issues, and I do mean bad cramping issues.
So bad in fact that over the past several decades I’ve done numerous deep dives into the subject, exploring supplemental strategies, anti-cramping protocols, as well as trying to wrap my head around the physiology of cramping.
Yet no matter what I’ve taken or done, nor what I’ve read, nor what doc I’ve consulted with, this issue continues in full force.
And this past weekend’s ride produced some cramping bouts so severe that days later my legs are still sore.
So today’s column is another of my many, many forays into trying to decipher just why I’m afflicted with muscle cramping more so than others - and more than anything, what can I do about it?
Let’s begin this latest foray by taking a look at a metadata study on cramping, “Muscle Cramping During Exercise: Causes, Solutions, and Questions” Remaining, published on Nov. 6, 2019 in Sports Medicine online.
So first of all, many people believe that cramping has everything to do with hydration levels.
Yet surprisingly, research into the subject doesn’t support that lone conclusion, and according to the authors of the aforementioned research paper the belief that dehydration is the principle culprit of cramping “comes largely from medical records obtained in large industrial settings.”
They argue against the dehydration thesis by saying, “cramp is notoriously unpredictable, making laboratory studies difficult, but experimental models involving electrical stimulation or intense voluntary contractions of small muscles held in a shortened position can induce cramp in many, although not all, individuals. These studies show that dehydration has no effect on the stimulation frequency required to initiate cramping and confirm a role for spinal pathways, but their relevance to the spontaneous cramps that occur during exercise is questionable.”
Now with respect to the cramps that I experience, in this paper they’re called EAMC (exercise-associated muscle cramps ) and they occur during or after a bout of physical activity. And again, as the researchers discuss, there have been oodles of research papers done on EAMC, some using football teams, some using endurance athletes like marathon runners and triathletes and some using varying conditioning protocols. Yet in most of these studies the association between cramping and dehydration/low serum sodium changes could not be conclusively proven.
The authors also explored metadata centering on the primary risk factors for EAMC - lack of fitness, training loads, muscle fiber fatigue and temperature variables.
And here they determined that, “it is unlikely that a single mechanism can account for all cramps in all situations, therefore the search for a single causal mechanism is probably futile. It follows from this that strategies for the prevention and treatment of the condition are also unlikely to be one-dimensional. However, whatever the primary cause, it is clear that cramp is accompanied by active contraction of the afflicted muscle, as evidenced by high levels of muscle electrical activity.”
Now of the several other EAMC theses explored in this article, the one that I feel just might be pertinent to me is one that goes under the heading of Altered Neurological Control - increased excitatory signals and decreased inhibitory signals to motor nerves.
About this thesis they say, “athletes who are prone to muscle cramps are reported to demonstrate a lower threshold for muscle cramps evoked by electrical stimulation of motor nerves. Blocking of the motor nerves with anesthesia does not abolish these electrically evoked cramps, but when the nerve is blocked, a greater stimulation frequency is required to induce cramping and cramp duration is reduced; altered motor unit discharge characteristics are consistent with the existence of a positive feedback loop involving afferent input from affected muscles and motor drive to those muscles”
So if it’s not dehydration, nor electrolyte imbalances nor even a host of EAMC risk factors…could this neurological issue be the root cause of my cramping?
I’m far from being certain at this point, but it looks like a very promising avenue to explore.
Thus, I’ll keep you posted on any upcoming breakthroughs concerning the association between Altered Neurological Control and EAMC - that along with any remedies, treatments and/or supplementation that researchers think could truncate the crippling symptoms of chronic cramping.